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Icon/url deployment to win7/8/xp pc's? Best tool / method?

I need to deploy this custom icon/shortcut onto dektop pc's running xp/win7/win8 (some internal employees, some outside customers).

I created an .ICO (icon) file and want it associated with a .URL file which I need to deploy to users.

I copied the icon into c:\windows , and set the properties of the .url to point to that.

I used Inno Setup to push the icon files to c:\windows and the url to the common desktop.

This seems kinda clunky, and relies on the destination pc having a folder: c:\windows.

Is there a better way?

Any thoughts? (did I mention: needs to be FREE!)

BTW, I do own a copy of winrar

Thanks,
Mike

SStory

Assuming you are developing for Windows you can almost guarantee C:\windows, but you could use an environment variable %HOMEDRIVE% instead of C: if you are worried. If you want it to be cross platform then this is not a great idea. Are you referring to a favicon that will appear in the browser by the url or an icon on the page for some reason? If on the page then you could embed it in the HTML page as base64 encoded and use an <img> to get to that and avoid the extra file.

mike2401

ASKER

thanks for the reply.

I'm referring to having a custom icon/url on the desktop, instead of a blue-E.

As for environmental variables, I'll have to check to see if that is permissible inside the .url file:

[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=https://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/OrderStatus/OrderStatusResults.asp
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://dataproplus.xiscirc.com:8080/DataPro
Modified=50250251E7C0C40134
IconFile=C:\WINDOWS\curtisdatapro.ico
IconIndex=0
HotKey=0
IDList=
[{000214A0-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
Prop3=19,2

SStory

Well, it depends upon your target platform really. c:\windows will be on a windows pc on 99.9% of all of them.

You can drop to a command prompt, type SET and press enter to see all the environment variables for locations where you might put it otherwise. If it is just to be used by the user that installed it then their profile root would be good. On 7 this is
c:\users\<username>\

on XP it is c:\documents and settings\<username>\

If this is a setup program you probably have variables that can tell it to use APPDATA\YourAppName\curtisdatapro.ico and it would create

(or LOCALAPPDATA)

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\CurtisDataPro

or

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\CurtisDataPro

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SStory

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mike2401

ASKER

Thanks @SStory. Good point about the self extracting zip. I think at one point I did it that way, but don't remember why I stopped.

Essentially, the "setup" is really just copying the .url to the desktop and .ico to c:\windows .

I can't see why a self extracting zip wouldn't be able to do it.

Mike

SStory

The only thing of the self extr. zip is that it expects a setup.exe. Zip Genius will do this if the setup contains a setup.exe file.

mike2401

ASKER

Thanks again @SStory. Since I finally got my inno script to work by upgrading to the latest version, and running it on win7, I got over the hump. I will close the call with my gratitude, and the next time I need to do it, I will try your suggestions.

Regards,
Mike

mike2401

ASKER

Thanks!

SStory

You are welcome!